HarvesteR
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- Apr 22, 2008
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Hello,
I've got a question, well, not so much a question as a proposal for a way to control a very complicated spacecraft, with all of it's components, in a fun, easy to grasp, but hard to master way.
Ok, some background on this might be useful:
As you may (or may not) know, I'm working on a game with spaceships, that will allow the player to build a spaceship out of parts, and later on, fly it.
The thing is, I'm trying to find a solution for spaceship staging, that will not only work across any type of ship the player might create, but also be a fun game mechanic by it's own right.
So I wanted to present the mechanic I have envisioned, in the hope of getting some early feedback on that concept.
Remember, this game is meant not only for Orbiter nuts, but also to some degree the general gamer...
This doesn't mean I'm making a dumbed-down space shooter, I want players to have to use their heads... So this is what I've come up with.
First of all, it might help to know a little about the flow of the game... The game is basically divided in 2 main parts:
The first one allows you to build a spaceship, in a spaceship creator much like the creators featured in Spore. A ship is created by dragging parts from a list, and dropping them onto a construction area. An initial part is always placed there (usually the command pod), and new parts are attached to it, and so on, essentially creating a hierarchical tree of parts that make up the whole ship.
The second part is the flying mode, which allows you to pilot the ship you've built.
So, how do we handle ships with dozens of parts, multiple stages, which may or may not be activated in parallel, and do so in a way that is simple to understand and fun?
My idea: A staging sequence editor.
This sequence editor works like this:
In the spaceship creator, each part that is added to the ship will create an icon on screen. These icons occupy a side of the screen, and stack vertically.
Each part placed will place another icon on top of the existing ones.
This stack of icons exists in both the spaceship creator and in flight mode.
The player may move these icons by dragging them along the stack with the mouse, and other icons will make room for it, indicating you can move them about and put them in different places in the stack.
Along with these icons, there are numbered tabs piled on this stack. These indicate the "stages"... when a stage is activated in flight, all parts below this numbered tab get activated at the same time.
Separation of stages is done using "separator" parts, that are activated like any other part, only in doing so they will break the ship asunder in a controlled fashion.
At all times there is a numbered tab above all the icons. If the player drags an icon above that tab, another one is created on top of it, allowing you to continue assigning parts to new stages.
If the list gets too big for the screen, a scrollbar will pop up to let you visualize the whole thing. Also, by hovering the mouse over a part in the construction area, it's corresponding icon will be highlighted (and the list will scroll to it if it's out of view)
So, with this in place, the player is (in theory) able to define exactly how his ship will work in flight... Imagine this scenario.
* In the first stage, are some solid boosters, and a liquid engine connected to it's fuel tanks...
* The second stage contains the separators.
* The third stage contains a smaller, 2nd stage engine.
* A fourth stage may contain another separator
* And finally, a fifth stage contains the command pod, along with it's heatshield and parachutes.
So, when in flight, the player may move to the next stage by hitting the spacebar or some other key... Each stage will activate the parts contained in it, so it falls to the player to figure out the correct sequence to achieve a proper, explosion-free flight
In flight, the list will update itself to match the current state of the ship... for example, if a separator is activated and a number of parts get dropped out of the ship, their icons will also disappear, and all icons above it will drop down to fill the gaps.
That's it... hopefully it should allow for any combination of staging and sequencing of activation... and provide an interesting puzzle at that.
I know it's probably hard to visualize how it's going to work... But try to imagine yourself playing the game... I can't publish any game content yet... but hopefully in a few weeks we should have a first release up (and free to play), so any help right now is immensely appreciated.
Feel free to ask any questions... I try to be as clear as possible, but that's easier said than done
Thanks in advance for any input. :tiphat:
Cheers
I've got a question, well, not so much a question as a proposal for a way to control a very complicated spacecraft, with all of it's components, in a fun, easy to grasp, but hard to master way.
Ok, some background on this might be useful:
As you may (or may not) know, I'm working on a game with spaceships, that will allow the player to build a spaceship out of parts, and later on, fly it.
The thing is, I'm trying to find a solution for spaceship staging, that will not only work across any type of ship the player might create, but also be a fun game mechanic by it's own right.
So I wanted to present the mechanic I have envisioned, in the hope of getting some early feedback on that concept.
Remember, this game is meant not only for Orbiter nuts, but also to some degree the general gamer...
This doesn't mean I'm making a dumbed-down space shooter, I want players to have to use their heads... So this is what I've come up with.
First of all, it might help to know a little about the flow of the game... The game is basically divided in 2 main parts:
The first one allows you to build a spaceship, in a spaceship creator much like the creators featured in Spore. A ship is created by dragging parts from a list, and dropping them onto a construction area. An initial part is always placed there (usually the command pod), and new parts are attached to it, and so on, essentially creating a hierarchical tree of parts that make up the whole ship.
The second part is the flying mode, which allows you to pilot the ship you've built.
So, how do we handle ships with dozens of parts, multiple stages, which may or may not be activated in parallel, and do so in a way that is simple to understand and fun?
My idea: A staging sequence editor.
This sequence editor works like this:
In the spaceship creator, each part that is added to the ship will create an icon on screen. These icons occupy a side of the screen, and stack vertically.
Each part placed will place another icon on top of the existing ones.
This stack of icons exists in both the spaceship creator and in flight mode.
The player may move these icons by dragging them along the stack with the mouse, and other icons will make room for it, indicating you can move them about and put them in different places in the stack.
Along with these icons, there are numbered tabs piled on this stack. These indicate the "stages"... when a stage is activated in flight, all parts below this numbered tab get activated at the same time.
Separation of stages is done using "separator" parts, that are activated like any other part, only in doing so they will break the ship asunder in a controlled fashion.
At all times there is a numbered tab above all the icons. If the player drags an icon above that tab, another one is created on top of it, allowing you to continue assigning parts to new stages.
If the list gets too big for the screen, a scrollbar will pop up to let you visualize the whole thing. Also, by hovering the mouse over a part in the construction area, it's corresponding icon will be highlighted (and the list will scroll to it if it's out of view)
So, with this in place, the player is (in theory) able to define exactly how his ship will work in flight... Imagine this scenario.
* In the first stage, are some solid boosters, and a liquid engine connected to it's fuel tanks...
* The second stage contains the separators.
* The third stage contains a smaller, 2nd stage engine.
* A fourth stage may contain another separator
* And finally, a fifth stage contains the command pod, along with it's heatshield and parachutes.
So, when in flight, the player may move to the next stage by hitting the spacebar or some other key... Each stage will activate the parts contained in it, so it falls to the player to figure out the correct sequence to achieve a proper, explosion-free flight
In flight, the list will update itself to match the current state of the ship... for example, if a separator is activated and a number of parts get dropped out of the ship, their icons will also disappear, and all icons above it will drop down to fill the gaps.
That's it... hopefully it should allow for any combination of staging and sequencing of activation... and provide an interesting puzzle at that.
I know it's probably hard to visualize how it's going to work... But try to imagine yourself playing the game... I can't publish any game content yet... but hopefully in a few weeks we should have a first release up (and free to play), so any help right now is immensely appreciated.
Feel free to ask any questions... I try to be as clear as possible, but that's easier said than done
Thanks in advance for any input. :tiphat:
Cheers
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